The College Board Wants to Shrink AP World History to European Colonialism, and That’s Bad for all Students

Terracotta sculpture from the Iron Age Nok culture, which lasted from 1500 b.c. to 500 a.d. in what is now northern Nigeria. Musée du Louvre.

As a former social studies teacher I understand the stress that can come with trying to teach a history class with content spanning millennia.

A lot of teachers feel this stress, and the College Board believes it has an answer. The College Board administers the SAT and advanced placement courses high schools. It has decided to change its AP World History course, starting in 2019, to “assess content only from c. 1450 through the present.”

The rationale is that the scope of content taught in AP World History is simply too broad, and that teachers are sacrificing depth to cover it all in a single year. The original course, created in 2001, began in 10,000 B.C.E. and ran through the current day. No more than 30 percent of course material was focused on the West.

So the College Board’s answer to the conundrum of how to teach some kind or representative history of the “world,” is to stop teaching history outside of Western imperialism? The organization Teaching Tolerance, decried the move, and recommends calling the new course, “European Colonial History.”

How can it be, in light of these studies, that the College Board decided to withdraw identity-affirming and culturally transparent histories from the curriculum?

Public education in the United States has a history of de-culturalizing and assimilating people; essentially using it as a tool for cultural genocide. It is important that students learn of a world prior to European’s attempt to rule over it. Children of color need to learn that their history started prior to European colonization, African enslavement, and indigenous genocide.

Likewise, white students need to learn that this world was black and brown long before their world was made white. White students make up some 59 percent of AP students nationwide, and they will benefit from a less-sanitized version of history; requiring them to see outside of a Eurocentric perspective.

Children of color need to learn that their history started prior to European colonization, African enslavement, and indigenous genocide.

Changing how students look at the history of the world could begin with learning that the Grimaldi, a Negro people, lived in Europe over 12,000 years ago. Or that the civilization of Elam (located in modern day Iran), are Negroid ancestors of the Babylonians and later the Persians, flourising around 2900 B.C.E. Or that Athanasius, an Egyptian called the “black dwarf,” was critical in establishing the Christian doctrine of the hypostatic union during the early church.

But perhaps this is wishful thinking on my part. Afterall, we can’t even properly teach our own country’s history of slavery.

Public schools in America are most often white spaces. The vast majority of teachers and administrators are white. Leadership at the College Board is all white with the exception of one African American regional director. That matters. I don’t believe the decision makers at the College Board are being intentionally racist, but I do believe that without people of color in leadership, culturally incompetent decisions and policies will be made. There is no commitment to diversity without a commitment to hire people of color in leadership positions.

There is also no commitment to diversity without a commitment to teaching all students about our complicated historical relationship with skin color.

It’s a relationship that begins before 1450. It reaches back to when Europe looked to Africa for inspiration for its universities. It is revealed in the evidence of Negroid types in China between the upper Paleolithic to Mesolithic time periods. It is a complicated relationship that cannot be cut short without maintaining a false narrative of racial dominance.

While I do not believe the College Board desires to increase divisions among our students, I do think that this decision will do little to bridge them. I hope the College Board reconsiders its move.

Update: July 17, 2018. The College Board has revisited this decision and agreed to include history beginning in 1200. Teachers remain unimpressed.

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Rann Miller directs the 21st Century Community Learning Center, a federally funded after-school program located in southern New Jersey. He spent 6 years teaching in charter schools in Camden, New Jersey.

Comments (3)

AP "Global"?

Inn June a number of my 8th grade students received their new AP Global History textbooks. As a science teacher I was curious about some of the important contributions made by scientists. I had two people in mind: Alassandro Volta (Italy) and Michael Faraday (England); neither scientist was anywhere to be found. On a hunch I looked up one more, and sure enough Eli Whitney made the grade. Based on these errors of omission, it is hard to believe that this course is an objective look at "global" history.

Rick Bobrick120 days ago

history

Those who want Mexicans to go back to Spain need to realize that Mexicans are a native people, part of an empire which stretched from Colorado to Guatemala. Mexico City was founded in 1325. US schools don't want anyone to know who the foreigners really are.

Antonio Bernal128 days ago

AP college board - history requirments

American have a rosy eyed view of all things connected with college. It has become the new form of religious conversion. As a result the AP concept and programs have taken on a life of their own. Much like college sports. Its all about credentials and filtering out one group from the RIF-raf. The author of this story is correct in his argument, but he is living in a dream world if he thinks advanced placement high school programs are about educational opportunity. They are about gaming the system and securing a finger on the scale for all its participants, a sort of bonus coupon. Anyone who participates needs to understand that to be admitted into any self selecting group, some aspects of fairness will be broken. Any teacher, in a school with AP courses, will tell you that the "elbowing class" dominates those in the program. That they are in the program for the "Pass Go & collect $200" certificate not for the more rigorous curriculum which is suppose to better match their intellect.

Chris Dpeller130 days ago

Hey there Progressive Reader—your help is needed.

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